Be still my nerdy heart …

I asked for a cross cut paper shredder for Christmas. Yea, that kind of super special nerd. I am in love with this black beauty and its 10 sheet capacity … be still, fluttering heart.

My office hides hundreds of pounds of filed away paper. Some of it’s useful. Some of it’s necessary. A lot of it is related to my nerdy job. The rest, though, has just been hanging out because I didn’t have a proper way to dispose of it. We used to pretend that That Boy would use this identifying and private information to stoke the garage wood stove, but … well, he didn’t. It just kept adding up.

Today is a big day.

The piles have been transformed into heaps of colorful confetti, hiding away years of memories I don’t want to have anymore. Most of it is completely benign … old electric bills here, financial aid documents from a degree completed almost 5 years ago, old car registrations and since renewed driver’s licenses. Some, though, is more emotionally charged.

Among the mess are three year’s worth of paper trail for That Boy’s workman’s compensation claim, an injury that changed and challenged everything about our lives, our livelihoods, and our relationship. Then there’s the pile of credit card statements, a dusty history of my fall into Consumer Debt Hell … a battle since won that completely turned topsy turvy the way I handle money, consumption, and the place my intense need to simplify probably comes from.

It’s all in tiny pieces now, headed for a new life as compost. I feel 100 pounds lighter already.